Tik’al
may not be so much off the beaten track. Still it receives surprisingly less
visitors than the majority of Maya and pre-columbian sites across Mexico and
Yucatan. Arguably, Tik’al possesses some of the most impressive and iconic Maya
architecture in Meso-America.
Accounts
of a fabled city of stone somehow lost in the jungle of Petén began circulating
in the early XVII century. However, it was not until 1848 that the site was
formally discovered by an expedition led by Modesto Mendez and Ambrosio Tut.
The site was extensively studied and excavated, amongst others, by Alfred P.
Maudslay and Sylvanus Morley. Excavations on the site are still ongoing mostly supported by the University of Pennsylvania.
Covering
222 square miles of thick jungle and with 13 square miles of structures already
unearthed, Tik’al is the largest excavated site in all of Pre-columbian
America. Still, this is but a tiny portion of the whole site.
We arrived in
Tik’al on the early morning of a sunny day in early May. Our flight from Guatemala City to
Flores – some 70 Km away from the ancient site – had been somehow delayed
because of the morning mist covering the mountain tops.
The road running from Flores to Tik'al runs
through pristine forest along the shores of lake Petén Itza, one of the largest
in Guatemala, until the gate to the national park. The site did not seem to
receive many visitors this time of the year, so we could have whole areas of
the site entirely for ourselves.
At the
entrance of the park, one is greeted by a giant scale-model of the ancient
site, complete with pyramids, causeways and reproductions of buildings. One can
not but wonder at the complexity and overall grandeur of the ancient layout. When looking at it, one immediately
realizes that one day is not enough to see all of Tik’al, especially if you don’t
want to miss also the minor ruins and pyramids that dot the landscape. My suggestion
is you stay at the Jungle lodge Hotel, which offers some comfortable accommodation
just inside the archaeological site (which
is especially good for those who wish to watch at the sunrise or sunset from
Temple IV – also keep in mind that after 3 pm the site is almost deserted, with
nearly no tourists around, while most tours running from Flores usually end in
the early afternoon).
Not much is
known of the early history of Tik’al before the pre-classic period of Maya
civilization. The earliest findings on the site date from the 6th
and 4th century B.C. However, Tikal did not reach its peak until the
Classic period, extending from 200 to 850 AD. The population of Tik’al is estimated
at 100,000 at its height, making it one of the largest cities of Maya
civilization (together with neighboring
El Mirador).
Tik’al had
strong ties and relationships with most sites in Meso-America, as far as
Teotihuacan in distant Mexico. For some time, Tik’al even came under
Teotihuacan’s rule, which happened around 378 AD during the rule of King Siyah K’Ak (Fire is Born) who “came from the West” as reported in
inscriptions portraying the King with the typical Teotihuacan armor and
headdress.
After the
period of Teotihuacan rule, an alliance of Maya states including Caracol and
Calakmul fighted and eventually defeated Tikal in the mid 6th
Century AD. This coincided with a near complete stop of all building activity
at the site and a lapse in the writing of inscriptions lasting for all of the 6th
and 7th Century (known as the
Tik’al hiatus). During the 9th Century, construction work
started again on Temple III, the last monumental construction to be built in
Tik’al. However, by 950 AD Tik’al seems to have suffered a rapid collapse, with
the majority of the city already deserted. The last inhabitants abandoned the ruins
around the 10th or 11th century, with the rainforest
claiming all that was left of the ancient city. One can not but wonder at the
mystery of a once thriving city, with all its magnificent temples, majestic
palaces and pyramids, suddenly abandoned and left to the jungle.
For almost one thousand years, Jaguars and
monkeys would be the only inhabitants of this city of the dead.
[To be continued in Part 2]
Tik'al, Guatemala - The temple of the Great Jaguar (Temple I) on the great plaza of Tik'al - arguably one of the most iconic Maya architectures in Meso-America (Photo by Author)
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